The Royal Welsh Showground is the biggest in Wales, located in the heart of the country Builth Wells. The last weekend in April sees the annual Wonderwool Wales show, a great event if you are interested in anything woolly or textile related. Thousands attend each year, it gets bigger every time, and needless to say accommodation is hard to find locally so be warned – book months before.
This year we tried the Greyhound Hotel in the middle of Builth, serving good food and reasonably-priced accommodation. Arrival was great, everything was fine, lovely room that was clean and comfortable with good sized bathroom. We booked a table for dinner, reminding them when we went down to the bar as they were very busy. After waiting 3/4 of an hour, we found they had given our table away so the only choice left was the restaurant at the back – a huge, freezing cold room with no-one else in it – or the table in the bar next to the pool table.
When the food arrived, it was fine but it was so noisy it was pointless trying to talk to each other -this may be a bonus for some people, I can hear you say. The worst was a group of golfers staying at the hotel who felt obliged to bellow at each other when standing next to each other. Worse, they also brayed at each other when on the landing before going to bed at midnight.
So, very noisy and service not good even at breakfast the next morning. We were in a room on the second floor, which is ok if you can do stairs. Another irritation was the room key – a new system they had which involved a yale-type key that had to be turned several different ways with an actual roll catch so that you also needed to push the door hard to open it. Over the weekend, this resulted in lots of guests looking very sinister as they struggled and swore at their door at close quarters.
It appears they regularly have groups of golfers staying as guests, so they are perhaps better at catering for groups, but for us it was not the best place to stay. We would probably visit again for a meal, but not as guests.
